Free Polished Off by Barbara Colley

of the reason for Daniel’s visit settled around her like a cloak of doom. Even though she was expecting Daniel to knock or ring the doorbell, she still jumped when he rapped on the door.
    Taking a deep breath and whispering a quick prayer that she was doing the right thing, Charlotte opened the door.
    “Come in, Daniel.”
    He brushed past her, then turned to face her, his expression tight with worry and concern. “What’s going on, Aunt Charley?”
    Charlotte closed the door and motioned toward the sofa. “Let’s sit down.”
    Daniel’s lips thinned with impatience, but he did as she asked. Once they were seated, Charlotte began. “As you may or may not know, I worked in Nadia’s place for Patsy Dufour yesterday.”
    Daniel nodded. Charlotte went on to explain about leaving her vacuum and about going back to Patsy’s house to pick it up earlier that day. She also told him about the pond and the men moving the statues and the urn. “The urn was heavy, though,” she said. “Too heavy. The men dropped it, and it cracked. And when they moved it again, the cracked portion fell—
    “Aunt Charley,” Daniel interrupted, holding up his hand, “I don’t mean to be rude, but what does any of this have to do with me, and why all the urgency?”
    “Be patient, Daniel. Please. You’ll understand in just a minute. Okay?”
    Once he nodded, she continued. “There were bones inside that urn. Human bones.”
    “What?”
    Charlotte held up a hand. “Just let me finish. We called the police, and when they showed up, they confirmed it. They questioned all of us—the two workers, Patsy Dufour, and me. When the detective finally said I could leave, the other detective came in with a billfold they’d found in the urn. Daniel, honey”—Charlotte reached over and squeezed his arm—“that billfold belonged to Ricco Martinez.”
    Daniel blanched. “Martinez?” he whispered.
    “They—the crime-scene team—found Ricco’s driver’s license inside the billfold.”
    For what felt like an eternity, Daniel simply stared at her with a stunned look of disbelief. When he finally found his voice, it was a harsh whisper. “Are—are they sure?”
    Charlotte slowly shook her head. “I don’t think they’re absolutely sure. I figure they’ll have to do some further testing—forensic stuff or something like that to be certain. But you see now why I needed to tell you, don’t you? One way or another they’ll want to question Nadia ... and probably you, too,” she added, “since you’re the one who arranged for him to get out of jail.”
    Daniel shoved his fingers through his hair, then abruptly stood and began pacing. After a moment, he sat back down. Turning toward Charlotte, he took her hands in his own. “Okay, Auntie, as best as you can remember, I need to know everything. I need to know exactly what the police did and said. Who were the detectives—their names—and what kind of questions did they ask? Think you can remember all of that for me?”
    Charlotte nodded, and with a reassuring squeeze, Daniel released her hands.
    “The detective who questioned me was Judith’s ex-partner, Will Richeaux,” she told him. She waited a heartbeat to see if Daniel had any kind of reaction to his sister’s ex-partner’s name. But Daniel’s only reaction was a frown.
    “Guess I didn’t realize they weren’t partners anymore,” he commented.
    When he said nothing more about it, a wave of relief rippled through Charlotte. Thank goodness he didn’t know about the affair his sister had had with Will Richeaux. On top of everything else, she didn’t want to be the one to have to explain about that, too. As far as she knew, she was the only member of the family who had known about the disastrous affair. Of course, Louis had known about it, but he didn’t count.
    Charlotte cleared her throat. “The other detective’s name was Tom,” she continued, “but I never heard his last name. Anyway, Detective Richeaux was the one